Currently, when a failure of a hardware system in, for example, a computer system occurs, a field engineer (FE) goes to an installation site, identifies a cause of the failure, and takes an action such as exchange of a component or the like. In such a case, the FE has to work while referring to plural manual books such as a manual book to identify the failure, a manual book to exchange a component seemed to be failed, and the like.
On the other hand, in order to enable a user to easily carry out the work such as component exchange work without referring to the manual books, a technique to explain the work procedure by images or voice exists. As such a technique, for example, a technique described in JP-A-2002-040884 exists. Specifically, in an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile having display means and voice output means, when a trouble is detected at any place, information of an operational procedure concerning the recovery of the trouble is displayed through the display means by characters or images, and a message thereof is output by the voice from the voice output means. Thus, in this publication, a method to provide the operational procedure predetermined in association with the trouble for the user is described. However, there is no description for an item for forming a work procedure in a unit of work steps, which compose the work procedure.
In a case of an apparatus, for which the work procedure for the failure recovery can easily be identified by an error code, such as the facsimile apparatus, because it is effective to display the predetermined work procedure step-by-step, the aforementioned conventional technique is also effective. On the other hand, in a case of a complicated apparatus such as a computer, there are many cases in which plural failure causes are supposed. Therefore, for example, when the failure is not recovered even by the work carried out according to the first work procedure, it is necessary to carry out the work according to another work procedure after the component, which was exchanged in the work carried out according to the first work procedure, is put back to the original place. In such a case, according to the aforementioned conventional technique, it is impossible to form the work procedure in the unit of the work steps, which compose the work procedure, and even when the duplicated steps in plural work procedures exists, it is impossible to identify and remove such unnecessary steps. Thus, because the duplication of the work procedure between the work procedure to return to a state before the first work procedure was carried out and another work procedure often occurs, there exists a problem that the work efficiency falls down.